The dollar was slightly firmer versus other major currencies Thursday morning, ahead of the latest reading on the embattled US jobs market.

 (RTTNews) - The dollar was slightly firmer versus other major currencies Thursday morning, ahead of the latest reading on the embattled US jobs market.
Speculation that China may raise interest rates in order to cool its red-hot economy, along with a downward revision to Greece's third quarter growth figures, prevented risk appetite from taking hold.
The safe haven dollar also held its ground after the  Bank of England voted to keep interest rates unchanged and make no new quantitative easing purchases after its monthly meeting on Thursday, in line with market expectations.
The buck continued to wobble between $1.3200 and $1.3250 against the euro, having shown little direction since hitting a 2-month peak of $1.2960 more than a week ago.
Even with European sovereign debt problems making the euro much less attractive, traders seems reluctant to pour into the dollar amid concerns about US fiscal and monetary policy.
This morning, Fitch downgraded Ireland's debt three notches, but kept a stable rating.
The dollar improved to $1.5745 versus the sterling, up a bit from a nearly three-week low of $1.5840.
Versus the yen, the dollar rose to Y84, just shy of a 3-month high of Y84.39.
The yen was slipping even after Japan said its third quarter gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 4.5%, faster than the 3.9% reported in November.
Its economy expanded 1.1% in the third quarter compared sequentially to the previous three months, better than forecasts for a 1.0% increase following the 0.9% gain in the preliminary reading.
Looking ahead, the Labor Department will release its customary jobless claims report for the week ended December 4th at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect claims to come in at 430,000 for the week, slightly lower than 436,000 reported for the previous week.
At 10.00 a.m ET, the Commerce Department will release its wholesale inventories report for October. Economists expect wholesale inventories at the end of October to show a 0.8% increase following an unexpected 1.5% increase in the previous month.